Bat Loves the Night-- First Grade

This Close Read lesson was completed with my first grade ESL students. I once again relied on the ReadWorks.org website for parts of this lesson. To begin, the students listened as I read aloud the story. I didn't generate much background knowledge because the Close Read strategy specifies not to do that so we really just dug into the book.

During this first read, I asked the students to think about the main idea. I use prompts like, "What is the author trying to tell us?" and "Do you think this author is going to give us information or entertain us?" It usually becomes clear early on that this story was written to give us information about bats. Once I finish reading aloud, we then discuss my prompts from the beginning. I always ask students to tell me what information from the story helped them to come up with an answer. This way they have to justify their answer and not just shout out anything that comes to mind.

The second read of this story focused more on vocabulary words. As I read it aloud again, the students were armed with highlighter tape so they could highlight words that were confusing to them. Using the tape poses a problem because students just want to mark every word. It's always interesting to me how many times students will solve this problem by correcting each other and saying things like, "You really don't know what _____ means?" The student who wants to use tape for the sake of using tape, generally backs off with blurting out ideas and really listens for words that are confusing to him/her. Once we are done listening for vocabulary words and highlighting them, the students then worked together to see if they could come up with ways to figure out the words (think context clues here... a bonus as students scaffold back to previously taught lessons!!) Those really tricky words that couldn't be figured out, were then discussed as a whole class to make sure they understood each one.

The third read was tricky because I wanted them to read it themselves but I only had one book. I decided to let them read with a partner as they filled out a graphic organizer about bats. The other students worked on different skills around the room and then we switched places. During this read the graphic organizer worked well to keep them focused but I really wanted to make sure they grasped some of the main concepts in this book. So I also included a list of questions they had to answer as they read. Here are the questions: 1. What is the story mainly about? Use details from the story to help you explain your thinking. 2. When does bat hunt for food? How do you know this? 3. How does bat fly during the dark night without bumping into things? Use one of the vocabulary words in your explanation. 

I feel like this lesson was very successful! The students seemed to be highly engaged in the story all the way through the final read and the graphic organizer looked amazing from the students. It was a very simple graphic organizer from ReadWorks but it really helped them to understand the story.

I am really starting to see how the Close Read strategy is beneficial to students of all ages. A difficult book is worth reading many times if you really want to understand it!!!

Apples by Gail Gibbons and Kindergarten

Recently my kindergarten students used the Close Reading strategy to read Apples by Gail Gibbons. I chose this book because I knew it would be difficult for my ESL students to understand all the vocabulary in the story. I figured the Close Reading strategy would be a good fit for this book and the students.

I started off by reading aloud the story from the beginning to the end. Before I read aloud, I gave a quick introduction about the book and discussed how the author is trying to teach us things about the history of apples. After the first reading, we had a short discussion. Next, I reread only the parts of the book I really wanted my students to focus on. Johnny Chapman and learning the words dormant, seedlings, and blossom were what we focused on. During this second read, we had more in depth discussions about the parts I chose. I used the third read as an echo read because the students really enjoy echoing me and it's great speaking practice for my ESL students.

Here are some of the questions I asked during the second read:

1. Who is the person that helped to bring apples all across the United States?
2. Can you give me an example of how the author shows you what dormant means?
3. Would you like to read another story like this? Give reasons from the story to tell why you would or wouldn't want to read another story like this one.
4. What is the author's purpose for writing this story?

Finally, to make sure my students really understood the vocabulary words I chose, I had them use a graphic organizer to draw a picture and add a sentence using the word. It's the same graphic organizer I used earlier. I love it because the students get to be creative but also think critically about the word as they use it in a sentence. Since printing can still be a little difficult for the students, I write their sentence on another paper and then they copy it to their graphic organizer. Here's an example of student work:

This graphic organizer was created by Ladybug's Teacher Files and it's definitely a favorite of mine! 

Close Reading is all the Rage

Hello,

Yes, you've heard about it, read about it, and even Pinned it! But how do you incorporate such a worthwhile strategy like close reading into your curriculum in a meaningful way? I've dabbled with it but don't feel like I really use it correctly. I teach the most wonderful ESL students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. They come from all over the world and bring a lot of unique experiences with them. I need to reach them, excite them, and stretch them every day. I'm hoping that by incorporating close reading strategies into my lessons, I will be a better teacher and my students will become better readers.

My goal is to post at least one resource, idea, accomplishment, failure, or lesson on this blog each week. I hope you learn from me (my mistakes) and are able to incorporate some of my lessons into your own curriculum. Please comment about things you've tried with your students and resources that you feel work best for you. Let's start this journey!